Get Cynical

Millions of such Bibles are published and distributed each year by believers in their tireless and tiresome effort to propagate their beliefs. Consequently, nearly everyone, whether believer or skeptic, has at least one copy in his or her possession. Among these Bibles will be found many different versions, but all have one thing in common: all are believer- friendly editions that support, promote, and defend the Bible.

The Skeptic’s Annotated Bible attempts to remedy this imbalance. It includes the entire text of the King James Version of the Bible, but without the pro-Bible propaganda. Instead, passages are highlighted that are an embarrassment to the Bible-believer, and the parts of the Bible that are never read in any Church, Bible study group, or Sunday School class are emphasized. For it is these passages that test the claims of the Bible-believer. The contradictions and false prophecies show that the Bible is not inerrant; the cruelties, injustices, and insults to women, that it is neither good nor just.

Quicksilver Maze

Discontinued plastic labyrinth

Of all the toys in our list, this is the one we can guarantee they’ll never bring back. The kid’s-plaything equivalent of the CFC-coolant fridge or leaded-petrol engine, the Quicksilver maze was so-called because it contained a measured blob of everyone’s favourite poisonous liquid metal, mercury. As with pretty much every maze puzzle since the dawn of time, the object was to steer this blob along the correct path to the centre of the board whereupon it would fall through a hole and return to the start at the outside again. The USP of the Quicksilver game, of course, was the increased difficulty posed by the mercury’s predisposition for splitting in two and heading off in different directions. Essentially, the game boiled down to man’s age-old struggle to maintain a steady hand whilst compensating for the surface-tension and viscosity of a base element, although they didn’t think to write that on the box.